Paradise as a kind of Library
by DeliriousMess
Summary: Collection of prompts from an AU proposed to me that's summarized as followed: "She's a child's librarian and he's a single father." Set in the same universe as "A Book Infested With Ghosts."
1. Chapter 1

"And he huffed, and he puffed, and he blew the house down!" Jennifer read, the small circle of children in front of her saying the words together. Some of them fell dramatically as they read "down."

The head librarian came in and nodded towards Jennifer. Jennifer smiled back, nodding at the librarian.

She stood and and closed the book, turning her smile to the kids, "Alright kids, story time's over for now. I'll see you all next week."

The kids erupted into noise, all laughing and talking over each other to each other. Jennifer smiled at them all, nodding when they tried to talk to her, when one little girl, her name was Zoe, came up and hugged her leg, "Hi Ms. Mason!"

Jennifer stooped to pull Zoe off her leg and held her hands, "Well if it isn't my favorite little reader? You missed story time!"

"That would be my fault." A voice just behind Zoe said. Jennifer looked up to see easily the most attractive man standing there. Jennifer blushed at him, as she stood.

He smiled at her and offered his hand for her to shake, "Hi, I'm Duke Crocker, Zoe's dad."

She smiled nervously back and shook his hand, "Hi. I'm, uh, Ms. Mason, I'm the—"

Duke nodded, "Oh I know who you are. My little lady here will not stop talking about her favorite librarian."

Zoe grabbed Jennifer's hand again and tugged, making her look down at her, as she said, "Daddy got up late this morning. We didn't get going until 11,"

Duke sighed back at Zoe, "And I have been apologizing profusely all morning."

Jennifer giggled next to Zoe and squeezed her hand, "How about we go find you a really difficult book for your Daddy to read to you?"

Zoe beamed up at Jennifer, "Okay!"

Duke groaned jokingly, "Oh now what did I ever do to you, Ms. Mason?"

She smiled at him, "Oh, please, call me Jennifer."

Duke smiled at her, "Jennifer."


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: Duke goes to her for book recs and ends up going over to help with dinner (perhaps he is a bad cook?)

"Oh, I found you!" A voice behind her said quietly. Jennifer glanced over her shoulder and smiled at the man standing there.

She tucked the books she still needed to shelf under her arm as she turned to him, still smiling, "Afternoon, Mr. Crocker! How can I help you?"

Duke grinned at her, making the slightest blush creep into her cheeks, "'Mr. Crocker'? I thought we were at least on a first name basis, _Jennifer_."

That slight blush turned into a full blown one at that, as she stammered, "Right. Sorry, _Duke_ , how can I help you?"

His smile turned sly, as he buried his hands in his pockets and tilted head slightly, "Well, I was wondering if you could recommend any books for Zoe and me to read together? Or even something for her to read on her own? I know she'll take to it much more if her favorite librarian said she'd like it than if _I_ tell her."

Jennifer giggled before gesturing for him to follow her towards some of the kids books. She set the books under arms onto a near by book caddy as she scanned the shelves.

She talked to him as she pulled some books out, "Well, a favorite of most little girls has been _Junie B. Jones_ , maybe some _Nancy Drew_ , or there's _The Box Car Children_ which is basically a family version of Nancy? But if we're looking for something a bit more contemporary, there's _Sammy Keyes_. Though Sammy's a bit old for seven year old, but if you read it with her, I'm sure it'll be fine. But I'm sure there's only some much mystery that one person can take, so maybe something fun…Oh! _The Adventures of the Bailey School Kids_! Zoe'll like them; just fanciful enough to be engaging but still trying to keep it within the realm of possibility. It's a fun series and it passes the Bechdel test, which is always something to look for in your children's fiction…'course there's also–"

"Jennifer?"

Jennifer looked at him and couldn't help but giggle; as she'd been talking, she'd started to hand him the books she'd pulled out until there was a rather impressive stack in his hands. He smiled at her, "How about two for her to read on her own, and one for us to read together? Just to give my arms a break."

She laughed nervously and took some of the books back, "Sorry. I get kind of excited when people ask me about books."

He shook his head, "Don't be sorry; These are all great ideas, and I'll remember them next time she's looking, but I wanted to surprise her with something when she got home _today._ "

Jennifer blushed back and nodded, "In that case, then how about a _Junie B. Jones_ and a _Bailey School Kids_ for her and…well, I'm more partial to _Sammy Keyes_ just because it's a little easier to conceptualize her since she's much more modern than Nancy, so maybe a _Sammy Keyes_ for you two to read together?"

"If that's what you recommend," He smiled, as she handed him the books.

She tucked her hair behind her ear nervously as she asked, "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

"Yes, actually." He said, tucking the decidedly smaller stack of books under his arm and smiling at her, "I was wondering if you'd be available for dinner tonight? I'm trying a new recipe and I'm not too confident in my abilities, but I'd love the help."

She looked at him in surprise, her blush reigniting as she stared at him, her voice seeming to have abandoned her.

Duke shifted nervously, "Or, um, or not, I didn't mean to–"

"I'd like that." She said, her voice quiet.

Duke beamed at her, "Yeah?"

She smiled back, "Yeah."

He let out a sigh of relief, "Great! Um, does six work for you?"

She nodded, still smiling at him before saying, "Let me get my cell phone and we can exchange numbers so I'll know where I'm going."

"Yeah! Yeah that'd be…" He let the thought end there and kept smiling at her as he walked with her back to her desk, their hands brushing against each other as they walked.


	3. Chapter 3

Prompt: Duke's little one is sick and to get her to stop watching Tangled for the 5th time in a row, he goes to get her some books to read. When he arrives, no one is at any desks so he goes in a hunt to find Jennifer. He finds her in the stacks singing "When Will My Life Begin" and becomes utterly smitten while she gets embarrassed

Duke was pretty sure he was going to sue that goddamn school; Zoe had been in school for three months and she'd been out sick just as many times with Strep Throat. And while he'd do anything to make his little lady happy, if he had to watch _Tangled_ one more fucking time he was going to snap her DVD in half.

So, feeling confident that she was going to be asleep for the better part of the afternoon, he'd left her securely tucked into bed and locked in his apartment as he headed back to the library to try and find something for her to read. She'd burned through most of the books they'd checked out earlier that week, and he hoped that a few new books would offer a more favorable alternative to watching _Tangled_. Again.

And seeing the pretty librarian was just a bonus.

As he approached the desk where said pretty librarian _should_ have been, he was a bit disheartened to see that she wasn't there. He placed the stack of books he'd brought to return on the counter, and went to go find her.

To ask for more recommendations.

Yeah.

That's it.

As he wondered the aisles, he spotted some of the titles that Jennifer had mentioned to him the last time he'd come in and that Zoe had (unsurprisingly) enjoyed thoroughly, and started a stack to tuck under his arm. Zoe had _really_ enjoyed _Junie B_. and _Bailey School Kids,_ and always laughed at them when she read them on her own. And right now, he knew she needed a smile, at the very least.

The most amazing thing from her reading those stories, though, and what he was more than willing to remind her teachers of when they'd started worrying about her falling behind because of her time out of class, was that she'd actually started to read the parts that'd made her laugh _out loud_ to him.

And while it might have been a bit dramatic to completely attribute this to Jennifer, he knew all too well that she was definitely a major factor. He wondered if there was some way to thank her.

As he walked passed the Biography section, he heard the faint sound of someone singing. The voice was too soft to really determine if it was familiar or not, but the tune was.

" _…and basically, just wonder when will my life begin?_ " the voice became clearer as he reached the end of the aisle and looked to his right to see Jennifer in front of a shorter bookcase with a book jockey next to her and shelving a few stray books.

He leaned against the bookcase, just watching her. She was so completely lost in her own world that she didn't even seem to realize she was singing. Even though he'd heard the song more times the last few days than any person should ever have to, he found himself wanting to listen to her sing the whole entire album to him.

She continued, " _Then after lunch it's puzzles and darts and baking, paper mache, a bit of ballet–_ "

As she sang the word "ballet," she went to do a rather controlled pirouette, which brought him fully into her line of vision. This interrupted the flow of the pirouette, causing her to accidentally knock down some of the books on the shelf behind her. Duke laughed as she flushed red and began to pick back up the books.

He set his stack down on the floor as he helped her and apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

This only made her blush worsen, "Oh God. How long were you standing there?"

"Only a few seconds. Was there more that I missed?" Duke asked, grinning at her mischievously.

She pressed her forehead lightly against the stack of books in her hands, "Oh _God._ "

He kept grinning at her as he reached out and gently moved the books away from her face. When he saw her face again, he smile turned fond.

Oh, he was in _deep_.


	4. Chapter 4

Prompt: Think about little Jennifer verses a huge stack of books and Duke can't see her until he removes half the books and is like "the hell?!" And she's just that dedicated to her library she can walk around it blind folded and he finds that cute

If there is one thing that can absolutely and readily be said about Jennifer Mason, it's that she's good at her job. More than that, she _loves_ her job. And when she loves something, she is all in and _very_ task focused.

So when the Head Library asked her to move two whole stacks of books that go to very different sections of the library to be re-shelved all before her afternoon reading session with the kids, she took it as a challenge and was only too willing to prove herself.

"Hey Jennifer," One of her co-workers asked shortly after she'd been given her little assignment, "Do you need any help? That's a lot of books and the cart can get pretty hea–,"

"I'm okay, thank you." She smiled back, lifting one stack onto the other and lifting the now towering stack and setting out to put them away. Her co-worker just stood there, baffled. She smiled over her shoulder at him, "I'm incredibly strong."

Jennifer couldn't actually _see_ where she was going, the stack was too tall for that, but it didn't really matter; she knew the layout of the library as well as the back of her hand. Not that she could see the backs of her hands right now, but she figured her point still stood.

Just as she was reaching the Criminology section of the library to start working on the top half of her impressive stack, someone spoke to her.

"Excuse me? I'm, uh, I'm looking for Jennifer Mason?" A familiar voice asked from the other side of the stack in Jennifer's arms.

"Duke?" She called back.

"…the hell? Jennifer?" Duke asked, not quite believing that she was the one on the other side of the impressive stack.

"Hi!" She said excitedly, "You're here early! I didn't think you and Zoe would be here until Story Time. Can I help with something?"

"Hold that thought; I can't actually have a conversation with you like this." Duke replied, carefully wedging his fingers between some of the books and taking the top half of the stack so he could see her.

He smiled at her as she beamed at him, "That's better."


	5. Chapter 5

Prompt: The library is about to close but due to too many late costumers, Duke included, Jennifer needs to have her dog let out so he offers to do it for her. After the dog is let out, his daughter is in love with the dog and doesn't want to leave so when Jennifer arrives home, she has company...

Jennifer was at her wits end and was trying her best not to start screaming at the Soccer Moms that were squabbling about who had actually grabbed the last copy of the book she was trying to check out. She pointedly glanced at the clock for the fifth time since the pair had approached her counter and groaned internally.

At this rate, poor Andy's bladder was going to burst. She looked back to the Soccer Moms, still trying to smile politely at them as they continued to squabble about the book, when she saw a familiar and very welcomed figure approaching the counter.

She caught Duke's eye, and he smiled at her. Zoe bounced slightly next to Duke, a stack of books under her free arm while she held her father's hand.

"Excuse me, Ma'ams, but the people behind you seem to be ready so if could just step to the side while you _finish_ your discussion?" Jennifer asked, adding an emphasis on the word "finish" that she hoped the women would notice.

They stepped to the side, hardly seeming to notice Jennifer's attempt at subtlety, and Duke and Zoe stepped up to the counter.

Zoe beamed up at Jennifer as she placed her books on the counter, "Hi Ms. Mason!"

Jennifer leaned forward on the counter slightly to be closer to Zoe's level as she smiled back at her, "Hi Little Lady. Found some exciting new books?"

"Uh-huh!" Zoe nodded enthusiastically, her dark curls bouncing around her face.

Jennifer straightened and started scanning the books. She turned her gaze to Duke and couldn't stop the blush that immediately colored her cheeks, "Evening, Duke."

Duke smiled at her, "Ms. Mason."

She smiled back, her blush deepening, "Out a bit late for a book run, aren't we?"

Duke sighed, "You've clearly never dealt with a headstrong little girl who's read everything else in the house."

Jennifer giggled but sighed as the argument between the women at the far end of the counter seemed to get more intense, "No, but I can probably guarantee that I'm no stranger to stubbornness."

Duke glanced at the women as well as Jennifer reached the end of the stack, "Yeah, they don't look like they're going to let up any time soon."

"They've been arguing about that fu— _stupid_ book for the last twenty minutes. At this point I'm starting to think that there are _deeper_ issues between those two."

Duke chuckled as Jennifer sighed, "I'm starting to get worried about my dog."

Duke couldn't hide his surprise, "You have a dog?"

Zoe stood on her tiptoes, her eyes bright with excitement, "What kind of dog?"

Jennifer smiled at Zoe, "She's a pitbull. Her name's Andraste but I call her 'Andy.' And she is the sweetest, most timid thing you've ever met."

"Why are you worried about her?" Duke asked.

Jennifer sighed again, something she was doing a lot tonight, "She's been cooped up all day; I don't know anyone in my building—not _well_ anyway—and I haven't had a chance to stop by and let her out. And at the rate _those_ two—" she glanced meaningfully at the women "—are going, I'm not sure when I'll get there."

Jennifer slid the stack of books to Duke, sighing, and smiled at him, "But that's for me to deal with. Have a good rest of your night."

Zoe looked up pointedly at her father. Duke looked back at her with his brow furrowed and shook his head at her. Zoe only looked harder at him, evening nodding her head slightly towards Jennifer. Duke sighed and turned back to Jennifer, "Where do you live? Maybe Zoe and I could stop by and check on her. Just so you don't have to worry about her while you…finish up here."

Jennifer's whole face lit up, "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Duke smiled back at her despite himself.

 _Probably a lot more if it meant you having that look on your face._

"Yeah. Do you have a spare key or something?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Duke and Zoe were on the doorstep of Jennifer's apartment, armed with instructions on where Andraste's harness and leash were and on the best way to get her to trust them. Duke unlocked and opened the door, and half expected wild barking or for them to be charged by the dog inside the apartment. When neither of those things happened, Duke took Zoe's hand and they carefully walked into the apartment.

It was brightly decorated, with art pieces and family photos covering most of the walls, and with bookcases making up most of the walls in the main room. Duke wasn't sure what he expected. It was a small space, to be sure, but it was homey. It seemed exactly like the kind of place Jennifer would live in.

Zoe let go of his hand for a moment, and pushed the cracked bedroom door further open, revealing a king sized bed with a purple bedspread. And in the center of that wide expanse of mattress, was a gray and white pitbull with blue eyes. At the door opening, she stood on the bed, remaining completely still as she watched Zoe carefully and waited for her to do something.

"Daddy?" Zoe said nervously over her shoulder.

Duke slowly approached the room, gently moving Zoe to the side and then behind him. As he got closer to the dog, he held both his palms up and out for her to sniff. When he was close enough that she could sniff his palms without crowding her out, he let her take the lead.

She sniffed as his palms, watching him carefully. After a moment, her tail twitched and she began wagging it, she even went so far as to lick his palm.

Duke smiled at her and carefully moved to scratch her head which she happily moved to help him with. Duke turned to Zoe and smiled, "It's okay, baby. Jennifer was right; she's just a big love bug."

Zoe smiled at him and moved towards the bed and started carefully petting Andy. Duke went to find the harness and leash, both exactly where Jennifer said they would be, and in a few minutes and after some more careful coaxing, they were walking around the park across the street from the apartment building. Zoe had found a ball near the harness and leash and asked if it would be okay for her to play with Andy. Duke didn't see the harm in it, and unclicked the leash from the harness, allowing Andraste to chase enthusiastically after the ball that Zoe threw for her. Duke was impressed at how gentle Andy was with Zoe; when she brought the ball back to her, she always dropped it next to her feet and waited for Zoe to grab it again. She never charged her or barked at her; in fact the only thing that she did that was even marginally excessive was wag her tail.

They went back to Jennifer's apartment about twenty minutes later, and while Duke was starting to wonder if maybe those deeper issues Jennifer had been jokingly alluding to had reached a head with the two women, he knew it was more than a little past his daughter's bed time.

Zoe had climbed onto Jennifer's couch with Andy curled next to her. She was reading part of one of her new books to Andy whose head was resting in Zoe's lap.

"You ready to go, Zo?" Duke asked.

Zoe looked at him in heartbroken surprise, "Go? But…"

"But what?"

"She's gonna be alone again." Zoe said quietly, rubbing Andy's head.

Duke sighed, "Not for long. Ms. Mason's sure to be home soon. And it is way passed your bedtime."

Zoe blinked back tears— _crocodile_ tears, he was sure—as she countered, "But _Daddy_ …"

"Oh don't you dare." Duke warned, pointing at her sternly.

"Daddy, she doesn't want to be alone. Can't we stay a little while longer? _Please_?"

Even Andraste was looking at him now, blue eyes pathetic looking. Duke stared at them, trying to keep his resolve firm, but if there was one thing that he was weak for, it was his daughter looking at him with tear filled eyes. He sighed as he walked to the couch and sat on Zoe's other side letting his left arm rest on the back of the couch behind Zoe, "You know, there's gonna come a day where the teary eyed 'Daddy Please' act isn't gonna work anymore."

Zoe beamed at him as she nestled into his side and finished for him, "But it's not today!"

Duke shook his head, "Don't I know it. Okay. Finish the chapter."

* * *

The arguing Soccer Moms ended up bickering for an _hour_ after the library was supposed to have closed. They probably would've gone on longer if Jennifer hadn't finally just snatched the book out of their hands and told them both that they would no longer be carrying that book or that author so "Please for the love of God go be with your families or something because you both _clearly_ need to sort out your priorities."

So when she finally reached her apartment door, all she wanted to do was curl up with Andy in bed and watch something mind numbingly dull on her laptop until she fell asleep.

Imagine her surprise, then, when she opened her door and saw a light on in her living room. At first, she just assumed that Duke and Zoe had forgotten to turn it off before they left, but when she stepped into the room, she discovered what had really happened.

Duke was stretched out on the couch, Zoe was on his chest, and Andraste was curled up on his feet. All three of them were asleep and there was a book loosely held in Duke's hand as it hung over the edge of the couch. She studied the scene for a moment, debating on what to do, before she smiled at it. What harm was there, really, in letting them sleep?

She moved towards the couch and carefully took the book from Duke's hand. She marked the page he'd been holding it at and set it on the table next to the lamp. She grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and covered the trio with it. As she clicked the lamp off, she found herself thinking that she could get used to coming home to a scene like that.


	6. Chapter 6

Prompt: Duke knows Jennifer is working but cannot find her. Eventually he finds her in a corner, surrounded by books crying over the ending of one of them. He laughs (unintentionally) and she cries harder. Feeling horrible he picks her up from her corner and gives her a cuddle and tells her how he would have ended it.

"'I'll be done at five,' she said," Duke grumbled to himself as he stalked through the aisles of the library, "'I'll meet you out front,' she said; 'We'll get dinner,' she said."

He paused once he reached another gap in the aisles and sighed. He'd been looking for at least fifteen minutes and so far he had yet to actually find her. He headed to his left, "I don't know what I expected."

In the time they'd been dating, Jennifer had yet to actually get off work in time for them to do a normal dinner and a movie date at a reasonable time. He admired her work ethic, of course, but this was starting to get the slightest bit ridiculous. He was also starting to think that the teenager he'd started to use as a babysitter was hiking up her prices because of how often he'd had to ask her to stay later than their previously agreed to time.

Finally, he found her sitting cross legged in a corner of the Psychology section with a couple of stacks from other sections on either side of her. He let out a sigh of relief once he saw her and started smiling before he realized something was wrong. She was reading something and just as he reached her, she closed the book and looked up at him with teary eyes.

When she saw him, she wiped at the tears that had spilled down her cheeks, and tried to smile at him.

"Hi." Her voice cracked as she spoke and before he could stop it, he chuckled at the sound of her voice breaking.

This only caused her to tear up just the slightest bit more in response, even pulling her lips into her mouth so it formed a line and looking away from him, and he immediately regretted it. He crouched in front of her and moved to wipe the tears he caused from her cheeks with his fingers, "Oh no, don't—I'm sorry, Jennifer, I didn't mean—"

"No it's not you," she interrupted, trying to move his hands away and clearing her throat to try to get her voice to stop breaking. She held up the book she'd been reading, "It's just this stupid book. _Five_ books in the series and the author decides to end it with the death of the main character and by effectively removing her whole motivation beforehand—it's like nothing in the last four books have meant _anything_!"

As she'd started explaining the whole thing to him, he moved so that he could lean back against the wall behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her back against him.

"Okay, well while I have no idea what's happening, clearly there were some things that need to be changed about these books." He said as he rested his chin on her shoulder and grabbed the book in question from her hand to study the cover.

She coughed on a laugh as she took the book back from him and leaned back into him. He smiled as she settled against him and pulled his arms tighter around her waist, "Let's see. If _I_ had been writing this story, I think I would've done something with dinosaurs."

She laughed outright at that, "Dinosaurs?"

"Oh yeah," he grinned back, "Like I tell Zoe, all stories can be improved by adding dinosaurs. Trust me."

"I bet." She replied, wiping at her face gently to get rid of the drying tears there, "What else?"

"Well the dinosaurs, of course, would've saved the main character from her certain death,"

"Of course," she chuckled back.

"And there seems to also be a complete lack of spaceship duels, as well as a cute animal sidekick—both of which probably would've kept her motivation in tact. And _where_ is our secret society subplot?" He asked, speaking a bit louder in response to her increasing laughter.

He just smiled at her as she kept laughing at him, "What? I'll have you know these are all completely valid literary devices!"

This only renewed her laughter at him and he couldn't stop the laugh that came up as he watched her. After a moment, she calmed down and placed a hand on his face so she could turn her head and kiss his cheek.

"Thank you," she said quietly to him.

He smiled at her before risking a chaste kiss to her lips, "Anytime, darlin'."


End file.
